Can evolution get us off the hook? Evaluating the ecological defence of human rationality

Consciousness and Cognition

Volumn 33, Issue , 2015, Pages 524-535

  Boudry, Maarten ^a   Vlerick, Michael ^b   McKay, Ryan ^c  

^a GHENT UNIVERSITY   (Belgium)

^b UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG   (South Africa)

^c UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Adaptation; Cognitive bias; Ecological rationality; Error management; Evolutionary psychology; Fallacies; Fast frugal heuristics; Irrationality; Locus shifts

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; COGNITION; COGNITIVE BIAS; CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK; DEFENSE MECHANISM; ECOLOGICAL FALLACY; ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY; ECOLOGY; EPISTEMOLOGY; EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION; HUMAN; INTELLIGENCE; SUPERSTITION; THINKING; VISUAL FIELD; EVOLUTION; LOGIC; PHYSIOLOGY;

BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION; HUMANS; LOGIC; THINKING;

EID: 84926175961     PISSN: 10538100     EISSN: 10902376     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2014.08.025     Document Type: Article

References (86)

1. Adler J.E. Abstraction is uncooperative. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 1984, 14(2):165-181.
2. Aktipis, C. A., & Kurzban, R. (2004). Is Homo economicus extinct?: Vernon Smith, Daniel Kahneman and the evolutionary perspective. In R. Koppl (Ed.), Advances in Austrian economics (pp. 135-153).
3. Ariely D. Predictably irrational, revised and expanded edition: The hidden forces that shape our decisions 2009, HarperCollins.
4. Arkes H.R. Costs and benefits of judgment errors: Implications for debiasing. Psychological Bulletin 1991, 110(3):486-498.
5. Babler T.G., Dannemiller J.L. Role of image acceleration in judging landing location of free-falling projectiles. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 1993, 19(1):15.
6. Bennis W., Katsikopoulos K., Goldstein D., Dieckmann A., Berg N. Designed to fit minds: Institutions and ecological rationality. Ecological rationality: Intelligence in the world 2009, 409-427. Oxford University Press, New York. G. Gigerenzer, P.M. Todd (Eds.).
7. Casscells W., Schoenberger A., Graboys T.B. Interpretation by physicians of clinical laboratory results. The New England Journal of Medicine 1978, 299(18):999.
8. Cosmides L., Tooby J. Better than rational: Evolutionary psychology and the invisible hand. The American Economic Review 1994, 84(2):327-332.
9. Cosmides L., Tooby J. Are humans good intuitive statisticians after all? Rethinking some conclusions from the literature on judgment under uncertainty. Cognition 1996, 58(1):1-73.
10. Dawkins R. The selfish gene 1976, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
11. Dawkins R. The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene 1982, Oxford University Press, Incorporated.
12. de Sousa R. Why think? : Evolution and the rational mind: Evolution and the rational mind 2007, Oxford University Press, USA, New York.
13. de Sousa R. Evolution, thinking, and rationality. Philosophy after Darwin: Classic and contemporary readings 2009, 289-300. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. M. Ruse (Ed.).
14. Dennett D.C. Intentional systems in cognitive ethology: The "Panglossian paradigm" defended. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1983, 6(03):343-355.
15. Dennett D.C. Darwin's dangerous idea 1995, Penguin, London.
16. Dennett D.C. Kinds of minds towards an understanding of consciousness 1996, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London.
17. Dennett D.C. Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking 2013, WW Norton & Company.
18. Dulany D.E., Hilton D.J. Conversational implicature, conscious representation, and the conjunction fallacy. Social Cognition 1991, 9(1):85-110.
19. Fawcett T.W., Fallenstein B., Higginson A.D., Houston A.I., Mallpress D.E.W., Trimmer P.C., et al. The evolution of decision rules in complex environments. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2014.
20. Fiedler K., Wänke M. On the vicissitudes of cultural and evolutionary approaches to social cognition: The case of meta-cognitive myopia. Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology 2004, 2(1):23-42.
21. Fiedler K., Wänke M. Why simple heuristics make life both easier and harder: A social-psychological perspective. Simple heuristics in a social world 2013, 487-515. Oxford University Press, New York. R. Hertwig, U. Hoffrage (Eds.).
22. Galperin A., Haselton M.G. Error management and the evolution of cognitive bias. Social thinking and interpersonal behavior 2012, 45-64. Psychology Press, New York. J.P. Forgas, S. Fiedler, C. (Eds.).
23. Gigerenzer G. How to make cognitive illusions disappear: Beyond "heuristics and biases". European Review of Social Psychology 1991, 2(1):83-115.
24. Gigerenzer G. On narrow norms and vague heuristics: A reply to Kahneman and Tversky. Psychological Review 1996, 103(3):592-596.
25. Gigerenzer G. Gut feelings: The intelligence of the unconscious 2007, Viking Press, New York.
26. Gigerenzer G. Rationality for mortals: How people cope with uncertainty 2008, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
27. Gigerenzer G., Brighton H. Homo heuristicus: Why biased minds make better inferences. Topics in Cognitive Science 2009, 1(1):107-143.
28. Gigerenzer G., Hell W., Blank H. Presentation and content: The use of base rates as a continuous variable. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 1988, 14(3):513.
29. Gigerenzer G., Hertwig R., Pachur T. Heuristics: The foundations of adaptive behavior 2011, Oxford University Press, New York.
30. Gigerenzer G., Hoffrage U. How to improve Bayesian reasoning without instruction: Frequency formats. Psychological Review 1995, 102(4):684-704.
31. Gigerenzer G., Selten R. Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox 2002, MIT Press.
32. Gigerenzer G., Sturm T. How (far) can rationality be naturalized?. Synthese 2012, 187(1):243-268.
33. Gigerenzer G., Todd P.M. Simple heuristics that make us smart 1999, Oxford University Press, New York.
34. Gilovich T. Biased evaluation and persistence in gambling. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1983, 44(6):1110-1126.
35. Heuristics and biases. The pyschology of intuitive judgment 2002, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. T. Gilovich, D. Griffin, D. Kahneman (Eds.).
36. Gilovich T., Vallone R., Tversky A. The hot hand in basketball: On the misperception of random sequences. Cognitive Psychology 1985, 17(3):295-314.
37. Goldstein, D. G., & Gigerenzer, G. (1999). The recognition heuristic: How ignorance makes us smart.
38. Goldstein D.G., Gigerenzer G. Models of ecological rationality: The recognition heuristic. Psychological Review 2002, 109(1):75-90.
39. Grice P. Studies in the way of words 1989, Harvard University Press, Harvard.
40. Hamilton W.D. Evolution of altruistic behavior. American Naturalist 1963, 97(896):354-356.
41. Haselton M.G., Buss D.M. Error management theory: A new perspective on biases in cross-sex mind reading. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2000, 78(1):81-91.
42. Haselton M.G., Nettle D. The paranoid optimist: An integrative evolutionary model of cognitive biases. Personality and Social Psychology Review 2006, 10(1):47-66.
43. Haselton M.G., Nettle D., Andrews P.W. The evolution of cognitive bias. The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology 2005, 724-746.
44. Hertwig R., Gigerenzer G. The conjunction fallacy revisited: How intelligent inferences look like reasoning errors. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 1999, 12:275-306.
45. Hertwig R., Hoffrage U. Simple heuristics in a social world 2013, Oxford University Press, New York.
46. Hilton D.J. The social context of reasoning: Conversational inference and rational judgment. Psychological Bulletin 1995, 118(2):248-271.
47. Jacoby L.L., Kelley C., Brown J., Jasechko J. Becoming famous overnight: Limits on the ability to avoid unconscious influences of the past. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1989, 56(3):326.
48. Johnson D.D.P., Fowler J.H. The evolution of overconfidence. Nature 2011, 477(7364):317-320.
49. Kacelnik A. Meanings of rationality. Rational animals? 2006, 87-106. Oxford University Press, Oxford. S.L. Hurley, M. Nudds (Eds.).
50. Kahneman D. A perspective on judgment and choice: Mapping bounded rationality. American Psychologist 2003, 58(9):697-720.
51. Kahneman D. Thinking, fast and slow 2011, Penguin Books, London.
52. Kahneman D., Slovic P., Tversky A. Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases 1982, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
53. Kahneman D., Tversky A. On the reality of cognitive illusions. Psychological Review 1996, 103(3):582-591.
54. Kihlstrom J.F. Is there a "People are Stupid" school in social psychology? [commentary on "towards a balanced social psychology: Causes, consequences, and cures for the problem-seeking approach to social behavior and cognition" by J.I. Krueger and D.C. Funder]. Behavioral & Brain Sciences 2004, 27:348.
55. Krueger J.I., Funder D.C. Towards a balanced social psychology: Causes, consequences, and cures for the problem-seeking approach to social behavior and cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2004, 27(3):313-327.
56. Lorenz K. Kant's doctrine of the a priori in the light of contemporary biology. Philosophy after Darwin. Classic and contemporary readings 1941, 231-247. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. M. Ruse (Ed.).
57. Marewski J.N., Schooler L.J. Cognitive niches: An ecological model of strategy selection. Psychological Review 2011, 118(3):393.
58. Margolis H. Patterns, thinking and cognition a theory of judgment 1987, University of Chicago press, Chicago London.
59. Marshall J.A.R., Trimmer P.C., Houston A.I., McNamara J.M. On evolutionary explanations of cognitive biases. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 2013, 28(8):469-473.
60. Maynard Smith J. The theory of games and the evolution of animal conflicts. Journal of Theoretical Biology 1974, 47(1):209-221.
61. McKay R., Efferson C. The subtleties of error management. Evolution and human behavior 2010, 31(5):309-319.
62. Mellers B., Hertwig R., Kahneman D. Do frequency representations eliminate conjunction effects? An exercise in adversarial collaboration. Psychological Science 2001, 12(4):269-275.
63. Mercier H., Sperber D. Why do humans reason? Arguments for an argumentative theory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2011, 34(2):57.
64. Millikan R.G. Language thought and other biological categories: New foundation for realism 1984, MIT Press.
65. Nesse R.M. The smoke detector principle. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2001, 935:75-85.
66. Over D. Book review: Ecological rationality and its heuristics. Thinking & Reasoning 2000, 6(2):182-192.
67. Pachur T., Todd P.M., Gigerenzer G., Schooler L.J., Goldstein D.G. When is the recognition heuristic an adaptive tool?. Ecological rationality: Intelligence in the world 2011, 113-143. Oxford University Press, New York. P.M. Todd, G. Gigerenzer (Eds.).
68. Piattelli-Palmarini M. Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Minds 1996, Wiley.
69. Pinker S. How the mind works 1997, Norton, New York.
70. Raab M., Gula B., Gigerenzer G. The hot hand exists in volleyball and is used for allocation decisions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 2012, 18(1):81-94.
71. Rieskamp J., Otto P.E. SSL: A theory of how people learn to select strategies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 2006, 135(2):207-236.
72. Sharot T. The optimism bias. Current Biology 2011, 21(23):R941-R945.
73. Shermer M. The believing brain: From ghosts and gods to politics and conspiracies - How we construct beliefs and reinforce them as truths 2011, Henry Holt and Co.
74. Singer B., Benassi V.A. Occult beliefs: Media distortions, social uncertainty, and deficiencies of human reasoning seem to be at the basis of occult beliefs. American Scientist 1981, 69(1):49-55.
75. Skyrms B. Game theory, rationality and evolution of the social contract. Journal of Consciousness Studies 2000, 7(1-2):1-2.
76. Sloman S.A., Over D., Slovak L., Stibel J.M. Frequency illusions and other fallacies. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2003, 91(2):296-309.
77. Sperber D. Explaining culture: A naturalistic approach 1996, Blackwell, Cambridge, Mass.
78. Stanovich K.E., West R.F. Individual differences in reasoning: Implications for the rationality debate?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2000, 23(5):645-665.
79. Stanovich K.E., West R.F. Evolutionary versus instrumental goals: How evolutionary psychology misconceives human rationality. Evolution and the psychology of thinking: The debate 2003, 171-230.
80. Sutherland S. Irrationality 2007, Pinter & Martin, Ebbw Vale, Wales.
81. Taleb N.N. The black swan: The impact of the highly improbable 2008, Penguin Books Limited, London.
82. Todd P.M., Gigerenzer G. Ecological rationality: Intelligence in the world 2012, Oxford University Press, New York.
83. Tooby J., Cosmides L. The biological foundations of culture. The adapted mind. Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture 1994, 19-136. Oxford University Press, New York, New York, USA. J. Barkow, J. Tooby, L. Cosmides (Eds.).
84. Wilke A., Barrett H.C. The hot hand phenomenon as a cognitive adaptation to clumped resources. Evolution and Human Behavior 2009, 30(3):161-169.
85. Williams G.C. Adaptation and natural selection: A critique of some current evolutionary thought 1966, Princeton University Press, Princeton (N.J.).
86. Zhu L., Gigerenzer G. Children can solve Bayesian problems: The role of representation in mental computation. Cognition 2006, 98(3):287-308.